1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a prepaid card processing device and particularly to a recording device disposed in a prepaid card processing device.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, more and more prepaid cards are used at ordinary retail stores. Therefore, prepaid card processing devices have been installed at such retail stores to process prepaid cards. At the same time, however, cash registers are still needed at the retail stores for handling cash transactions.
In general, a cash register consists of a key input unit for entering amounts of money, a sheet recording unit for printing amounts of money entered via the key input unit on receipts to be given to customers, a drawer unit for keeping cash and a recording control unit for controlling the recording unit, which prints data entered via the key input unit on the receipts.
A recent prepaid card processing device is typically composed of a reading/writing portion to read or write information on amounts of money from or to prepaid cards and a control portion to change the read information when the customer makes payment on purchases. In addition, it also includes a card recording portion to record the remaining amount of money in an account corresponding to the card on the printing surface of the prepaid card to be printed after the payment, and a recording control portion to control the card recording portion.
A cash register installed at such a retail store is equipped with a sheet recording device to record details of payment on receipts while a prepaid card processing device is provided with a card recording device to record an account balance on the card.
As such, a cash register and a prepaid card processing device have to be individually manufactured, purchased and installed at a retail store. Installing two recording devices having similar functions is a waste of space and a retail store's limited space should be utilized efficiently. The waste of space and need to purchase two separate machines results in rising costs to run the retail store.